Mr. Davenport was confused. And that was not okay. He didn't understand how things had gone so horribly wrong that afternoon; he had had it all carefully planned out, and he even had remote control of Spike. It was all supposed to be controlled. And yet the app had thwarted him.
Spike had thwarted Donald Davenport, the most handsome and awesome genius billionaire to walk the earth. And that was not okay.
Maybe things had started to get out of hand when Spike had turned on Bree the first time. But at the time, Mr. Davenport had known that Bree would come from that unscathed, and he had been right. He reasoned that that was the entire purpose of the training.
Maybe it had gotten out of hand when Spike had turned on Adam. But again, Adam's size, strength, and superior physical structure held, so Spike was unable to do anything all that damaging.
Mr. Davenport hadn't expected Spike to play dirty, but he supposed that if sheer will, ferocity, and persistence couldn't prevail, that was the only thing left to the app. As far as any of them knew, Spike was unable to use any of Chase's other abilities, which was clearly for the best.
It was out of hand when even after Spike had defeated Adam, he continued to terrorize the older bionic teen. Mr. Davenport shuddered to think of how far Spike might have gone.
It was most certainly out of hand when Bree stepped between her brothers, and Spike used that moment to snare her and slowly squeeze the life out of her. Mr. Davenport had recognized this right away and disengaged the app, but to his horror, Spike had lingered, almost long enough to kill his daughter.
Mr. Davenport suppressed tears of panic and guilt, resting his head in his hands. Today was a bad day. Just a bad day. Bad enough to instill the cold stab of fear of Chase's commando app, Spike, in the hearts of his family. Especially within his own heart, the heart of Donald Davenport.
Bad day. Just a really bad day.
Chase sat on the floor of one of the upstairs guest bedrooms, his back to a wall. He looked to be staring at a far off point in front of him, seeming completely devoid of life. Maybe he was a dummy.
Everyone would be better off if I was, he thought despondently. For the first time in a while, he moved, shifting his position so that some of the aches he was feeling would go away. As he did so, he unconsciously began to calculate the time based on the weak light that was filtering through the thin window curtains, and from there try to guess at the number of hours he had spent in that room, simply doing nothing.
No! Stop it! Don't think, Chase. Can't think! he mentally scolded himself, but it was too late. The simple act of figuring out the time had set his numb mind back in motion, and with it, his torrential emotions. The terror in Bree's eyes as he strangled her, the evident pain that Adam was in because of him, horror on the faces of Mr. Davenport and Leo, the fear and respect they now all treated him with….
A small, yet potent, sob wracked Chase's form, his shoulders shaking from the force of it. What had Spike done? Chase wished he knew, so that he might at least apologize, but he wondered if his family even wanted the apology. He wondered if they even wanted him around anymore. He wouldn't blame them if they didn't; who would want Spike around?
"I hate you, Spike," Chase whispered hoarsely to no one in particular.
"Okay, everyone, I don't know what happened in the lab today, but let's put it behind us and enjoy dinner tonight, alright?" Tasha said matronly. "I made lasagna and garlic bread!" When there was still no response from anyone besides the occasional glance at Chase, she sighed, saying "Alright, what happened?"
Two of the three boys, the girl, and the man at the table all looked at someone else uncomfortably, hoping that they wouldn't have to be the one to explain. Finally, Chase, who had merely been staring at his empty plate, piped up. "We tried training with Spike today," he said softly.
"And it didn't go well?" Tasha asked.
Chase snorted, saying "No, it didn't." Still he refused to look up.
"Well, it's Spike, you know…," Leo said in defense of Chase, giving his mother a look.
"I don't think I've ever met this 'Spike'," Tasha stated.
"You don't want to!" Leo said quickly, and the others nodded in agreement, Chase looking ever more distressed.
"Now why not? I've never met a dog that didn't like me, you'd think I was a dog-whisperer," Tasha said proudly, but she was bewildered by the outbursts of laughter around the table. "What?" she asked. "We're talking about a dog, right?"
"No, Tasha, we're not!" Mr. Davenport, her husband, choked.
"But he's the same size as one! A Chihuahua, that is!" Adam joked, elbowing Chase, who gave him the typical glare in reaction.
Tasha cocked her head, unable to figure it out, so Mr. Davenport explained: "One of Chase's abilities is his commando app, which is triggered when he is in a dangerous situation and needs to defend himself. The commando app, Spike, has the testosterone level of a wolverine/shark/Tasmanian-devil/lion hybrid, that's really, really mad."
"In both definitions of the word," Bree added, absentmindedly rubbing her neck.
"Needless to say, Adam and Bree got their butts kicked," Leo said seriously. Tasha looked both surprised and impressed.
"I almost killed them," Chase said, visibly distraught. He met Tasha's eyes for the first time that night at the conclusion of that statement.
"I'm sure it wasn't that bad, was it?" she looked around at the others, but they wouldn't meet her gaze. "Was it?" she repeated. She looked back at Chase, who just shrugged.
"He fought dirty and then tried to kick me to death," Adam said, wincing.
"And he strangled me," Bree added dramatically before catching herself, glancing worriedly at her younger brother.
Tasha looked back at the youngest bionic, clearly disturbed.
"It's not what you think!" Mr. Davenport exclaimed, recognizing her expression. "Chase can't control Spike at all, and he can't remember anything that happened while he was in commando mode."
Tasha turned to Mr. Davenport, who was sitting right next to her, whispering "Donald! Why would you put such a terrible app in the poor boy? Are you sure we can trust him?"
Before Mr. Davenport could respond, they were interrupted by Chase. "Can I be excused? I'm not really hungry right now," he said stoically, standing up as he did so. Mr. Davenport nodded dazedly, shooting a look at Tasha as Chase walked out of the room, presumably to go down to the lab.
"Tasha, you can't say something like that, especially when he's in the room," Mr. Davenport reprimanded when he was sure Chase was gone. "He can hear you with his super-hearing, and he's already beating himself up."
"Well, go talk to him then," Tasha replied, giving her husband a knowing look. He squirmed under her gaze, saying "I think I should at least give him a few minutes, don't you think?"
"Donald!"
"Alright, alright, I'll go," he consented, trying to swallow his nervousness. On the best of days, he wasn't good at this kind of thing, but today, with the possibility of Spike coming out again when he was down in the lab, alone with him…. He shuddered inwardly, saying "Everyone, you need to be nice to Chase, got it? That is an order."
There were nods all around, and with that, Mr. Davenport got up from the table to follow his second-to-youngest son into the lab, taking his sweet time as he did so. When he stepped out of the elevator and walked into the main area of the lab, he immediately saw Chase sitting at the cyber desk, engrossed in some kind of holograph video playing in front of him. Looking at it closer, Mr. Davenport was able to recognize it as a scene he had witnessed earlier that day that had been haunting him since.
"I know why you're here," Chase said without glancing in the direction of the elevator, "and I know why you don't approach me, why you don't come any closer. Why you're staying close to the elevator." At that Chase tore his burning stare from the holographic screen to his father figure, the boy's expression unreadable.
"Chase, I… I came to talk to you, about what happened earlier today; I wanted to see how you were doing," Mr. Davenport said, walking up to Chase, who paused the video. On the screen was a still-shot of Chase – er, Spike – mercilessly kickboxing a man in the face.
"You don't need to prove that you're not scared of me, just stay by the elevator," Chase instructed emotionlessly, but Mr. Davenport chose to ignore him, coming to stand directly next to his son. "And by the way, I'm pretty sure Tasha made you come down here, so let's just get this over with," Chase added.
Mr. Davenport opened his mouth to object, but then clamped it shut again, choosing not to argue. It always amazed him how perceptive and intelligent Chase was. Instead the man asked "How did you find that? The video, I mean. I thought I got rid of that."
"Look who you're talking to," Chase said arrogantly, raising an eyebrow with a small smile; but after a moment, the expression quickly gave away again to the stone mask he had assumed since the incident.
"You shouldn't be watching it, you don't want to see the end," Mr. Davenport warned.
"I've already seen the entire video; this is my second time through it."
"You shouldn't have watched that."
"Why not?" Chase burst out. "Why shouldn't I? I'm just as responsible for this as Spike is, so don't you think I should know what I did?"
"Chase, this was all Spike, you didn't do anything! Please don't beat yourself up over it," Mr. Davenport pleaded.
"He did all that through me! He draws his emotions from mine, his strategy from mine! If Spike's around, so am I; and if I'm around, so is Spike!"
Mr. Davenport looked down in defeat. How could he refute that?
There was a long, uncomfortable silence before Chase broke it, saying "Mr. Davenport, I want you to remove my commando app."
"Chase, you know I –" Mr. Davenport started to say, but Chase cut him off.
"No, Mr. Davenport! No excuses! I want him out, I want him gone!" Chase shouted.
"Chase, listen to me," Mr. Davenport commanded, grabbing Chase's shoulder before he could turn away. "I can't remove Spike. He is a part of you; your chip simply brings him to life."
"Then remove the app," Chase said in annoyance.
"I can't do that, it would destroy the very foundation of your bionic abilities and severely affect your brain," Mr. Davenport explained quickly before an upset Chase could interrupt him yet again.
Chase didn't respond, simply staring at Mr. Davenport angrily. He couldn't believe this. Was he seriously stuck with Spike forever? Sure, Spike didn't come out often, and quite frankly, he didn't even come out when he was needed; he only seemed to come when it was a great opportunity for him to ruin Chase's life and hurt the people he cared about.
Chase heard the click and the sliding of the elevator doors, and he let his stare shift over to the intruders. Adam and Bree snuck in timidly, closely followed by Leo and Tasha, all of them looking frightened for their lives.
Mr. Davenport turned to see what Chase was looking at, and when he saw the rest of his family standing there awkwardly, he asked "What are you guys doing?"
"We heard yelling, and we were… worried," Bree said, trying to put it as nicely as she could. Mr. Davenport quickly turned back to Chase to see that he was grimacing at that, and the man of the household turned back to the others, his eyes wide, as if to say Shut up! Go away!
Tasha got the message, saying "Come on, you three, let's finish dinner, alright? There's still plenty left." And with that they shuffled out, leaving Mr. Davenport and Chase alone again.
"Go with them," Chase said as Mr. Davenport turned back to him. "It's a school night, so I'm going to go to sleep now."
Mr. Davenport held Chase's gaze a moment longer before saying "Alright, sleep well."
The corner of Chase's mouth twitched, but that was the only reaction Mr. Davenport got from him. With that, the billionaire-father-figure left the lab, and Chase was once more left to his thoughts. He had been serious about going to bed (well, capsule in the case of the bionics), but before being true to his word, he discarded the video, making sure it was gone for good. Chase had seen enough to have memorized every last detail.
Mr. Davenport is a liar, Chase thought to himself. If he really hadn't wanted me to see the video, I wouldn't have found it. But he knew I would want to see it, so he simply hid it. I wonder what else he lies about, like a certain commando app…?
Before leaving the cyber desk, he had one more thing to do. He typed in a list of commands and set the timing for them. After reviewing the code to make sure it was free of errors, he felt that it was fine, so he closed the window and shut down the desk so that no one would know of his intentions.
As the screen turned black, a sense of peace came over him, and he relished in it. Content with his work, he hopped down from the swivel stool at the desk and walked to his capsule, stepping in and preparing it for the night ahead of him. And with that, he let the peace sweep him away into sleep.